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Archive for July, 2012

It seems a timely resource: The Journal of of Online Behavior all about computer-mediated interaction. Although still online, it seems that the site/journal is no longer being updated. Bummer.

This report about a study of gender differences in online gaming made me wonder how we at SeeSaw are going to handle gender. According to the study, men and women playing the online game Pardus act differently as they explore solar systems, make friends and enemies, harvest wealth or battle.As the site explains: it is set in a futuristic universe, where “traders, pirates, smugglers and other pilots of various professions, races and factions strive to gain wealth and fame in space.”

Female players are more risk-averse, for example, say the scientists from the Medical University of Vienna, but they also earn more money than men in the game. Men are more likely to accept friendship requests from women, according to the study. By the way, Pardus seems to be Austrian.

In his/her comments on the article in Technology Review, Pizdolinium writes that gender-swapping online is higher than the purported 10 percent that the scientists take into consideration. I wonder if we will be able to segment comments by gender. Our data might be off by a few genders, I gather.